


A Scene on the Beach

by scullyphile



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Carrots, Cute, Errands, F/M, Kissing, Marriage Proposal, Shopping, beach, romantic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-05
Updated: 2015-08-05
Packaged: 2018-04-13 18:56:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4533393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scullyphile/pseuds/scullyphile
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I had an idea that Mulder was seeing signs all around him about moving to the next stage of his relationship with Scully in a cute and silly way. This is supposed to make people feel better about the beach scene rumored in the revival.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Scene on the Beach

Mulder had never actually proposed to Scully. There was a joke between him and the gunmen that he asked her all the time and she always said no, but in reality he never had. They had a thing in their relationship about time; they waited and waited forever to do things, but once they finally did do them it was right away and all the time. Oh, he’d thought about it many times. He wasn’t even sure she would say no, but in his head it seemed pointless. They were already partners. They had never needed to say the words, and certainly not in front of other people.

Lately, however, he had become convinced that the universe was sending him signs. He kept seeing little old ladies on park benches, seeing little old men walk up to them with giant smiles, seeing the little old men kiss the little old ladies on the cheek. Usually, this sort of thing just make him smile or rolled off of him, depending on his mood. 

The one that really got to him, though, was truly absurd, even to Mulder himself. He’d been shopping for carrots, the kind with the big green tops still on them. Scully was on some sort of carrot kick lately, and he dug through the pile trying to find the best ones, although he had no idea what the best carrots would look like. Until he found them. 

He pulled out one large carrot, and when he did the top of the carrot seemed to be caught on something. He dug into the pile and found it, another, smaller carrot whose top was entangled with the top of the other carrot. He tried, for a second to separate them, but he wasn’t able to. He didn’t want to snap the tops off of them in the process. Then he thought of Scully. He put the carrots in his shopping basket and went to check out. He had another stop on the way home.

Back at home, he didn’t go inside right away but sat in the car for several minutes. His heart was beating fast. All the way to the jewelry store it had seemed like a good idea. The salesman helped him pick out a simple ring he was sure Scully would love. All the way home he had the radio blasting, hands beating out the rhythm on the steering wheel. He was excited. Once he had pulled up to the house, however, seeing it gave him a moment of panic. Maybe he shouldn’t go through with it. It was corny. He was dumb. She wouldn’t be interested. They had waited too long. Better to just keep living in sin.

But the sun was going to set soon, and time was wasting. He had a plan in place, and he was going to go through with it.

Scully came out on the porch to see what was taking him so long to come in the house. She had seen his car come up, and was waiting for him to come in with grocery bags for her to unpack. When he didn’t, she got worried. 

When he saw her on the porch he knew he could do this. He rolled down the window and shouted out. 

“C'mon, Scully, I have a surprise for you. Get in the car.”

She looked at him strangely, but she slipped her shoes on and got in the passenger seat. Mulder drove to the beach. They parked and got out. He had his paper bag in one hand, and in his other he took her hand. She had removed her shoes in anticipation of walking barefoot in the sand, and carried those in her free hand. 

They found a nice spot near the water. It wasn’t a particularly warm evening, nor particularly cold. Not many people were out.

“I thought we would watch the sunset,” he offered. They sat down in the sand.

“That would be nice,” she replied. 

“But first,” he said, paper bag rustling, “I have a story for you.”

She looked over at him with a smile in her eyes. “I like stories. Let’s hear it.”

“Today, when I was out running errands, I kept seeing cute animals cuddling, old people holding hands, clouds that looked like hearts. I started to think I was losing my mind. Then, when I got your text about picking up groceries, it snapped my head out of the clouds and back to real life. I was just running errands. I went to the store, and in the produce section I found these two carrots that were so entangled at the top the only way to get them apart would be to slice the tops off or break them apart with my hands. I know that it’s like the corniest thing I have ever said, which is saying something, but I thought that would be the only way to get us apart, to break us in some way. When I thought about us that way, I just wanted us to be together like that always. I never want to see you broken because something tore us apart.” His voice had gotten very quiet at the end.

They were sitting side-by-side on the sand, and Scully leaned into him when he said this, but she remained quiet, waiting for him to continue. Instead, he handed her the paper bag. She opened it and laughed.

“You bought the carrots.”

“I had to, Scully. They’re us.” He waited, but she hadn’t noticed the ring he’d slipped onto the smaller of the two carrots. She was playing with the tangled tops. “Have you ever wished we were married? I mean, If I had asked you, at some point in the last few years, would you have said yes?”

“I don’t know, probably. I plan on being with you for the rest of my life either way, Mulder. You know that, right?”

“I know. But, humor me here, Scully. What if I asked you to marry me tonight? What if I am asking you right now?” He reached over, took the carrot from her hand, and held it out to her. 

She looked at the ring, looked at Mulder. His eyes were serious. He was really holding up a carrot with a ring on it right now, on a beach, at sunset. 

He wasn’t expecting her to lunge at him, and, being caught off guard, he was knocked backward onto the sand. Her kiss was her answer, and her next kiss, and her next. 

Kissing paused, they lay there for a moment in the sand.

“That’s a yes?”

“That’s a yes.”

His heart jumped. Scully said yes! They were gazing into each others eyes, saying nothing. 

A few seconds later he realized he didn’t know what had happened to the carrots during all this lunging and kissing, what had happened to that ring he had just spent a bit of money on. 

“Where’d the ring go? Put it on, Scully.” 

She sat up, looked left, looked right. The carrots were in the sand next to them. She grabbed them, slid the ring off, and put it on her finger. It fit. She smiled a huge smile, looking down at Mulder. She was straddling him as he still lay there in the sand. Her face was glowing in the pink light from the setting sun. He had to kiss her again, so he pulled her down again and did. Their hearts were beating fast. They were never going to break apart. It was the best feeling.


End file.
